Airport cleaner returns bag with P430,000 cash

MANILA, Philippines — A cleaner at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) returned a bag containing cash amounting to P430,000 left behind by a passenger. 

Naia cleaner Sixto O. Brillante, Jr., who was assigned to clean the male comfort room near the immigration area of the airport, was informed by a passenger that he found a bag that was possibly left by another passenger last August 10. 

Brilliante then coordinated with a fellow airport cleaner in an attempt to locate the owner the bag through the paging system before turning over the bag to the Lost and Found Section of the Intelligence and Investigation Division of the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa).

Upon inspection, the bag contained an iPad, a wallet, and 7,300 Euros or P430,000 hidden inside two white envelopes. 

A Turkish passenger was later identified as the owner of the bag. 

MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal hailed Brillante while urging other airport employees to practice honesty at work. 

“Mr. Brillante could have easily kept the bag and favorably benefitted from what’s inside it, but he chose to surrender it. I admire him for his integrity. Hearing stories like this makes us Filipinos proud,” Monreal said in a statement. /je